Lin Yan felt as if his body had been emptied.
He lay on the double bed, his eyes staring straight at the ceiling.
The girl beside him was breathing rhythmically and evenly.
Lin Yan felt that his waist was a little sore. He was paralyzed on the bed and did not want to move. The room was filled with a strange smell.
His heart was beating violently, repeating the throbbing he felt when he unlocked the new position an hour ago.
The stifling and unbearable panting in the dark and the sound of splashing liquid seemed to linger in his ears. He could remember the feeling of his girlfriend's tender and white skin touching his own.
Lin Yan looked up at the time.
"I have to go, you..."
Before he could finish, Su Cheng opened her eyes. Her face was flushed from the strenuous exercise just now. "Don't worry about it."
Lin Yan choked on his words. He resisted the pain in his waist, turned around, and pinched his girlfriend's soft cheeks. He kneaded them for a while before getting out of bed to clean up.
"When is the next holiday?" Su Cheng covered her chest with the blanket, covering the traces of love on her body.
"... After the Intercontinental Championship." Lin Yan was not sure. Now that Liu Qingsong was injured, everything had changed.
After cleaning up the bed, Lin Yan went to the bathroom to take a shower. He changed into a clean set of clothes and returned to the room. He kissed his girlfriend's forehead and gave her a few reminders.
"Don't open the door at home at night. Check if it's locked before you go to bed..."
Su Cheng returned the kiss with a satisfied smile. "I know."
Lin Yan left with peace of mind.
He took a taxi and rushed back to the YM Club base 10 minutes before midnight. He punched in and walked into the training room with a slightly shaky gait.
Except for Liu Qingsong, the rest of the team members were there.
They did not have any other accommodation in Shanghai. Most of the time, this group of teammates would follow Jin Gong and freeload off Haidilao, or follow Jack to high-priced restaurants such as bungalows. After all, apart from Lin Yan, the Shiba Inu made the most money in the team, and they would not feel good if they did not take advantage of him.
As soon as Lin Yan entered the training room, he smelled the smell of hot pot in the air. It was blocked by the cold wind from the air conditioner. As the door opened, Jack and Big Eyebrows also smelled the fresh air, which made the smell of hot pot even stronger.
The two of them lowered their heads and sniffed their short-sleeved shirts before running to their respective rooms to change their clothes.
Guo Hao rushed to the training room at midnight, followed by Gouba and Red Rice.
Their faces were stiff, and they didn't seem to be in a good mood.
Three tanned faces that resembled Bao Qingtian appeared in the training room. The YM members who were still immersed in the joy of their vacation instantly calmed down.
"The most important question we're facing now is," Guo Hao spoke first. "After Liu Qingsong is injured, should we bring up an assistant from the second team?"
Lin Weixiang's heart turned cold.
Was his journey of having an assistant with a 100% win rate going to end here?
"I don't think it's necessary." Red Rice frowned. Jiang Chenglu translated all of his words. "It's too troublesome."
Gouba also chimed in. "Liu Qingsong will only be out for two weeks. There are a total of five regular season games. He'll be fine after that."
Guo Hao shrugged helplessly. He didn't want to argue with the coaching staff anymore. They had been arguing all night, each with their own opinions, and there was no consensus.
As Big Eyebrows listened to their words, his restless heart jumped up and down in his chest.
This was too f * cking exciting.
"How many assistants do we have in our second team?" Lin Yan responded to the manager's words.
"Four." Guo Hao had already prepared the information and distributed the resumes of the youth training assistants to each member. "Two of them are in the rotation of LDL, and the other two just joined not long ago."
"Wow, that many?" Mongoose exclaimed.
Thanks to the rapid rise of YM's strength and popularity, the second team in the secondary league was now quite well-stocked.
Currently, among the major youth training systems, YM was recognized as the most popular club.
Most of the high scoring masters who dreamed of embarking on the professional path came here for trial training.
Countless e-sports stars emerged from YM's youth training system. Perhaps Jack, who was in the top three in the national server at 14 years old and had 300,000 fans when he debuted, could not be replicated. However, from Lin Yan and Mongoose to Xiao Ming and Ning Wang who had already left the team, as well as the next generation's top mid-laner, Knight, they did not have any other foundation before their debut.
It was no exaggeration to say that these people made up half of the LPL's domestic star players after Old Ancestor Saiwen gradually retired and was used by EDG to sell their feelings.
Teenagers all wanted to be successful and famous, so naturally, they were fascinated by the YM club, which was said to be a mass production of e-sports talents.
If the trial training was good, there was even the possibility of directly joining YM's first team. This was an opportunity that many people dreamed of.
Lin Yan looked at the resumes. These four support players were all between 17 and 18 years old, so there was no problem with them not being able to step onto the LPL stage.
"There's nothing to see from the LDL league's data," Jack said. "They were all killed casually, there's no reference value."
The rest of the teammates agreed with Shiba Inu's opinion. They had all fought their way out of the secondary league and knew that there was no value in it.
Lin Weixiang, who looked smart, also went with the flow and nodded. Then, he frowned and realized that something was wrong.
Who are you hinting at?
Killing casually in the secondary league?
Da Mei, who led the team to dive into the City Hero Tournament with Unhappy, felt that he was being targeted.
As a jungler, Phyllostachys Pubescens had a keen sense of smell. He noticed that something was wrong with Da Mei and immediately patted Lin Weixiang's shoulder. "Brother Xiang, don't be suspicious. Jack is hinting at you."
He originally thought that Da Mei would go after Jack so that he could sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight.
Little Rascal still remembered that before the opening match last week, Lin Weixiang had used his super Ghost Sword Girl to defeat the Korean server's king.
He was a vengeful person, so he used someone else to do his dirty work.
However, Lin Weixiang did not react.
Oh, I'm a pig?
Beating up the starter, Addison, in front of the head coach and the manager?
Mongoose saw that he did not fall for it and sighed in his heart.
Guo Hao was also a wily old fox. Over the years, he had traveled extensively and dealt with capital everywhere. In terms of social interactions, he was much better than this group of players. Standing in the middle of the training room, he could easily see through everyone's thoughts.
He immediately chose to knock on the table and raised his voice. "Can you be more serious?"
"The issue we're discussing now is really important to us!"
Jin Gong acted as if he was invisible. He did not speak at all and was still savoring the tomato soup.
Lin Yan stood up. "How about this, Jack and I will go downstairs to the second team and see how good the four supports are. Seeing is believing."
He was the team's commander and Shiba Inu was the ADC partner with the support. They were indeed the most suitable candidates.
"Count me in!" Phyllostachys Pubescens raised his hand. "The wild supports are working together. You can't just pick the support and leave me alone, right?"
In the end, Jin Gong and Lin Weixiang stayed. The other three and the coaching staff all left the room and went downstairs to the second team's training room.
"Lianguo, lianguo …" Lin Yan heard the voice behind him and knew that it was his head coach. Red Rice's awkward Chinese pronunciation was very funny.
"What's wrong?" He stopped in his tracks.
Red Rice, Gouba, and Jiang Chenglu surrounded him.
"Later, unless you find a good seedling, you can reject all of the manager's suggestions. Is that okay?" Gouba requested sincerely.
"Why?" Lin Yan did not understand.
He had the right to do so.
If it was a normal personnel change, Guo Hao could make the decision himself.
However, this was a matter of team members. As the absolute core of YM, Lin Yan naturally had a lot of say.
His current position in the team was even more exaggerated than Li Xianghe's position in SKT. No one would treat him as a simple esports player.
"It's like this. If we bring in a new support, we have too many things to teach." Gouba frowned. "From the most basic creeps, to the positioning of eyes, to how to fight in a team battle, how to revolve the entire strategy …"
"It's only two weeks. Do you think it's necessary?"
Red Rice listened to Jiang Chenglu's translation and nodded.
After today's leave, the two members of the coaching staff wore the same pants. The manager, Guo Hao, obviously wanted to promote a new member.
Lin Yan thought about it carefully.
Time was indeed tight. There was a lot of content to be taught.
It was not to say that the support in the secondary league was so bad that they did not know anything about creeps and eye positions.
It was just that their positions were different and their needs were different.
A normal LPL team's support skills were not top-notch. It was good enough that they were barely useful.
However, they were YM, a team that stood at the top of the world.
If they were to bring in an average LPL support, they would obviously not be able to keep up with the team's rhythm. It might take time and the results would not be good.
They might not even be as good as Lin Weixiang. After all, Big Eyebrows had been following the team's strategy for the past two years. Moreover, his coordination with Lin Weixiang was quite good. What they lacked was the experience of moving around the support position and a certain amount of knowledge about positioning.
Lin Yan did not say anything.
Gouba saw this and continued to persuade him. "It's not that Red Rice and I don't want to teach. The team really doesn't have the conditions now.
"YM doesn't have a dedicated support coach. It's all up to the two of us …" He glanced at Red Rice. "We don't have enough energy."
Many European and American teams had dedicated individual coaches. These positions were called assistant coaches. Their actual job was to help the players in that position figure out the details of the lane.
For example, Coach Lu would take care of the top laner's health changes, consumption, and creeps during practice matches and matches.
There was a limit to what the head coach could teach. After all, most of them were not professional players in League of Legends before. Red Rice, who had played professionally, had retired for several years and could not keep up with the current level of technical development.
It had to be said that the threshold was very high. It was different from the head coach, who was mainly responsible for tactical formulation and operational thinking. If the assistant coaches had to teach the Korean server's high-scoring masters how to lane, they definitely could not find keyboard warriors or patients. Otherwise, they would be kicked out of the club after practicing with real swords and guns twice.
This position was basically for the older generation of e-sports players who retired and returned to the club to shine and provide some help to the younger generation.
But YM did not.
They were a club that was slowly built from scratch. The most senior players — Lin Yan, Mongoose, and Jin Gong — were still in service. Naturally, they could not be assistant coaches.
It was not realistic to look for them outside.
Especially for the assistant coach, it was as difficult as ascending to the sky.
Because of the scarcity of personnel.
No matter which server it was, the support specialization players were the least, from Bronze to King of Legends.
Even in the professional arena, the replacement of the assistant position was much slower. For many years, there were only a few old monsters on the stage. There were not many retired players.
There were only two assistants from the older generation in China, Windchaser and Sun Yeyou. One was semi-retired, and the other was still in AAHPH.
Then there were Hirano Ayaka and Meiko. These two were still in the arena. Then there were Shi Senming and Liu Qingsong.
There was no one to be found.
Guo Hao had thought that the assistant coaches were useless. Hire someone to teach Lin Yan how to lane?
He was afraid that the assistant coaches would not be able to hold on for more than five minutes.
The players were all very strong. There was no need to hire an assistant coach.
He had wanted to spend all his money on the most important things. He had spent a lot of money on Red Rice and Gouba's coaching team.
If Liu Qingsong had not suddenly been injured, Guo Hao's plan would have been fine.
Who would have thought that a torn neck injury would suddenly cause him to be hospitalized?
Now, the disadvantage of not having an assistant coach was obvious. If he promoted a newcomer, Red Rice and Gouba would have to personally teach the assistant coach.
Gouba saw that Lin Yan had no intention of speaking, so he quickly added, "We usually have to supervise practice matches, update with versions, study opponents … We're really busy."
Lin Yan pondered for two seconds.
Just as Gouba said, the YM coaching team was usually very busy. The main problem was that the competition schedule was full all year round. There was basically no time to rest. It was a bit excessive to give them more work.
"What does Hao think?" Lin Yan was quite curious.
The other YM players had already run downstairs to the second team's training room. Jack was still waving his hand to urge his mid laner to hurry up.
Lin Yan walked down while listening to the coaching team's reply.
When he arrived in front of the second team's training room, Lin Yan finally understood the whole story of the dispute between the manager and Gouba and Red Rice.
Guo Hao was already making plans for next year.
Because the contracts of YM's six starting players and substitutes would all expire during this winter's transfer window, they would all become free agents.
If the club wanted to maintain the original lineup for another year, the signing fee and salary would be close to nine figures.
After the club had already harvested most of the fans in the LPL division, according to the law of diminishing marginal benefits, making such a large investment would obviously not be as profitable as before.
Even if Guo Hao sincerely wanted to keep the players, it would be difficult for BMW China to approve this funding application.
The team members were scattered, so he still had to stay here and continue to fight.
It was also necessary to make early plans for next year's S9. If they could promote a newcomer and cultivate a star player, then it would be relatively easier to recruit for S9. The next generation of YM would also have a foundation.
This was very realistic.
"… Let's go in and take a look first." Lin Yan did not agree immediately. He pushed open the door and entered the training room.
If they really had to pick a young genius, they could not keep him in the secondary league.
Since BMW China's investment, YM's base had undergone a large-scale renovation. This was the first time Lin Yan had entered the second team's training room.
Unlike the spacious and bright upstairs, the space here was cramped. It was generally in the shape of the word 'circle', with rows of computers close to the four walls. The inner circle of the word 'circle', which was the center of the room, was where the coaches and analysts were. Of course, this place was now used by Jack and Mongoose.
In the wee hours of the morning, the training competition had already ended. More than a dozen youth trainees were still there playing ranking games. From time to time, someone would curse.
"Brother Ran, you're here?" Suddenly, an excited voice sounded.
Bai Jiahao's face appeared in his field of vision.
"Long time no see." Lin Yan raised the corner of his mouth. "You're now …"
He paused.
"Fighting for the starting spot!"
Bai Jiahao was full of enthusiasm. "I've already entered the LDL rotation. If I perform better, I might be able to play!"
"Not bad, not bad. Keep up the good work." Lin Yan gave a few perfunctory words of encouragement, but Bai Jiahao was already extremely excited.
When the second team's starting mid laner saw Lin Yan come in, he even wanted to hang up to ask for an autograph and a photo.
Although Lin Yan was in the same building as them, they did not see each other often. At this moment, when he saw the lively Shi Yizhong, he naturally could not hide his excitement.
"Keep playing, there's no rush." Lin Yan comforted him.
He ran behind Jack and Xiao Tian. The two of them were looking through the training competition videos of the youth training support, hoping to pick out a good seedling.
Lin Yan watched carefully for half an hour and made a decision in his heart.
Guo Hao looked at his expression and his heart sank.
Lin Yan directly pulled Guo Hao outside the training room.
"To be honest," he said calmly. "These four people can't make it."
Guo Hao's face was full of disappointment.
"It's because of Red Rice and Gou Ba …"
Lin Yan interrupted him. "Not all of them."
"If we're just looking at the average LPL level, one of them is qualified, but this is obviously not the result we want."
The level of domestic support was indeed uneven, and there were too few good support players.
The four support players in the youth training camp were not even as talented as the Prophet who was just promoted last year, let alone compared to Liu Qingsong and Shi Senming.
"Let's finish the S8 in front of us first. Everyone should strike a balance between work and rest."
Guo Hao nodded.
Originally, he only wanted to take advantage of Liu Qingsong's injury to train new players. He was not stupid enough to give up on the international competition.
Since Lin Yan had already spoken, Guo Hao could only give up on his plan.
"Oh right," he suddenly remembered something. "From now on, a physiotherapist and a fitness trainer will come an hour after dinner every day to take you guys to exercise. Let's free up this time."
"Huh?" Jack, who had just left the second team's training room, turned pale with fright. "Don't mess with me!"
For a lazy dog like him, training was impossible. It was impossible for him to train in this lifetime.
"Liu Qingsong is an example." Guo Hao smiled. "If you don't want to be hospitalized, be obedient and take care of your body."
Jack's face changed.
He remembered the days when he was tortured by roast duck until he was hospitalized.
Lin Yan was quite happy when he heard Guo Hao's arrangement.
He was eager to exercise more. Not only could he protect his body, but he could also make arrangements for Su Cheng when he came back.
Why not do it?